“Honor your father and your mother.”

(Deuteronomy 5:16)

For thousands of years, parents have been persistently quoting this command when their children refused to obey them. But what kind of “honor” is it about? Everything that Jesus did was “in conformity to God’s law to Israel” which included the abovementioned command. (Insight on the Scriptures, volume II, page 58) He gave us “the ideal, the perfect, example to follow.” – The Watchtower, December 15, 1985, page 5.

How did Jesus ‘honor’ his mother? Once “the mother of Jesus” asked him a favor, “but Jesus said to her: ‘What have I to do with you, woman?’” (John 2:3, 4, NWT 1984) He did not ‘honor’ his mother by obedience – rather he forbid her any intervention in his life whatsoever. Like his fellow Jews, he likely knew that “from garments cometh a moth, and from women [especially from mothers] wickedness.” – Ben Sira 42:13, KJV.

However, we should follow Jesus’ example not only when dealing with our literal mothers but also regarding “Jehovah’s organization [which] is like a mother.” (1998 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, page 161) Whenever the Watchtower organization tries to meddle in our affairs, we should reply like Jesus: “You must not tell me what to do.” (John 2:4, CEV) We should allow neither our literal mothers nor “Jehovah’s motherlike organization” to decide on our lives. – The Watchtower, June 1, 1998, page 23.

“How blessed will be the one …

… who seizes your young children and pulverizes them against the cliff!” (Psalm 137:9, ISV)

As described by the prophet Isaiah, God himself had charged the Babylonians with devastating the land of Israel and making it “an object of horror.” In the same prophecy he announced that after 70 years, he would punish Babylon for executing his order. (Jeremiah 25:9, 12) What would be the punishment?

He told the Babylonians through the psalmist: “How blessed will be the one who seizes your young children and pulverizes them against the cliff!” (Psalm 137:9, ISV) Obviously, God likes it when little children are killed barbarously, so he blesses and praises people who do so. The prophecy was originally fulfilled by Cyrus some 2,500 years ago, “but in the fullest sense, Cyrus was not the one meant in the closing words of Psalm 137: …  ‘O daughter of Babylon … Happy will he be that grabs ahold and does dash to pieces your children against the crag.’ … Who will be that ‘happy’ one?” – Worldwide Security Under the “Prince of Peace”, page 148.

“In the near future happy will be the official service of the antitypical Cyrus, the glorified Jesus Christ, to see to it that accounts are settled with Babylon” and that in a spiritual sense its children are dashed to pieces. “Worshipers of Jehovah … take the divine view of justice and so can join the inspired psalmist” in his statement that pulverizing little children makes happy. – The Watchtower, May 15, 1980, page 20.

Since all people who are not Jehovah’s Witnesses will be killed, many of God’s worshippers will lose their mate, children, or other relatives, also dear friends. (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, pages 181, 255) But the Bible clearly shows that “God’s servants are told to exult” at their destruction. (The Watchtower, June 15, 1975, page 378) “Jehovah … fills the earth with dead bodies … It will be a feast to those who are on the Lord’s side.” – Light, volume II, pages 172, 173.

In heaven there will be “great joy over the eternal destruction” of all infidels. (The Watchtower, December 15, 1988, page 23) And “life on earth after the destruction of all” family members who had turned away from Jehovah’s Witnesses or had too few hours of field service “will be a delight.” (The Watchtower, December 1, 1974, page 719) Indeed, “it will be a wonderful thing to live in Paradise” without all these people. (Listening to the Great Teacher, page 182) Even today we can sense the pleasant anticipation of this time if we regard unbelieving relatives “as though dead.” – Revelation – Its Grand Climax at Hand!, page 50.

“You are my friends if you do what I am commanding you.”

(John 15:14)

Many ask themselves, “What does friendship call for, and how may we gain true friends?” (The Watchtower, September 1, 1976, page 521) As Christians we have to follow Jesus’ example of course. He explained how to recognize real friends when he said to his companions: “You are my friends if you do what I am commanding you.” – John 15:14.

So true friends would obey blindly to everything we say. We can check if someone qualifies for becoming our friend by issuing commands to him – for example, we can order him to leave his family and live on the street for our sake, or to proclaim our name from house to house. Only someone who eagerly ‘does everything that we are commanding him’ can be our friend.

“A man will leave his father and his mother.”

(Genesis 2:24)

Jesus repeated this prophecy and urged everyone to “leave his father and his mother.” (Mark 10:7) Was he referring to one’s literal parents? Hardly, for adult Christians “still need to honor their parents” a lifetime. (The Watchtower, February 1, 2010, page 27) So, which “father” and which “mother” was Jesus speaking of?

“Besides being the God of Christians, Jehovah is also their Father.” (Commentary on the Letter of James, page 47) Actually Jesus prompted us to disassociated ourselves “from our Father, Jehovah, and his motherlike organization.” (The Watchtower, June 1, 1998, page 23) Do not hesitate to heed his advice!

“You did not come back to me.”

(Amos 4:10)

Problems can arise even in Christian marriages, for example if the husband spends too much time on congregation matters of if the wife spends too much money on witnessing cases. But God “knows better than anyone else the way to a happy family life. And He has put the key at our fingertips in … the Bible.” (Kingdom News No. 32, page 2) Husbands whose wives committed adultery can follow Jehovah’s example, for “although Jehovah honorably fulfilled his role as Husband, the nation of Israel became an unfaithful wife.” (The Watchtower, August 1, 1995, page 10) How did Jehovah try to save his marriage with the nation of Israel?

Looking back over this time, he said: “I … caused a lack of bread in all your houses; but you did not come back to me … I also withheld rain from you three months before the harvest … I struck you with scorching heat and mildew … The locust would devour your fig trees and olive trees; and you still did not come back to me … I sent among you a pestilence … With the sword I killed your young men and captured your horses. I made the stench of your camps rise up into your nostrils; but you did not come back to me.” (Amos 4:6-10) Jehovah spared no effort to regain the love of his unfaithful “wife” – he struck the Israelites with famines, bad harvests, epidemics, poverty, death and many other plagues.

Christian husbands of today can do the same. They could cage unfaithful wives, withhold food and drink from them, or intentionally give them foul or poisoned food so that they get sick. As the ultimate measure they could kill their wives and hope that in the resurrection they will feel their “first love” again. (Revelation 2:4, NASB) But what if a wife does not respond to these loving measures?

In that case Christian men should consider that the same happened to Jehovah. He brought ever stronger diseases and plagues over his wifelike people – “but you did not come back to me.” (Amos 4:10) “Jehovah, in effect, divorced himself from the nation” of Israel when he realized that his marriage was beyond remedy (Awake!, February 8, 1994, page 21) Christian husbands can do the same and so “become imitators of God.” – Ephesians 5:1.